Shaping a more inclusive and sustainable world by empowering the next generation of local leaders to drive global agendas.

Daniel Calarco de Oliveira is a youth advocate and community leader who empowers young people in favelas across Brazil. Growing up, Daniel saw firsthand how marginalization and exclusion prohibited communities like his from breaking cycles of poverty and violence. Today, he manages International Youth Watch, a youth-led organization that provides capacity-building training in employment, technology, and human rights advocacy for 10,000 youth. The organization’s Favela.LAB program trains young people on climate action in line with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, and its women’s economic empowerment program has helped  200 mothers in 15 favelas. Daniel aims to apply the skills gained from the Scholars program to expand the Favela.LAB program and train climate leaders in the urgent fight to protect Brazil’s Amazon and Atlantic Forest regions.   

Daniel served as a National Youth Counselor to the Brazilian Presidency. He holds the title of Young Global Leader within the United Nations Development Program’s Generation17 and is recognized as a Young Peacebuilder by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Daniel participated in the Yale Young Global Scholars program and the American Consulate to Rio’s Leaders of Tomorrow program, and coordinated UNESCO’s Pact for Youth. He was a visiting student at Columbia Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Rio de Janeiro Law School.

Biography current as of 2023-2024 program year